Stikman

Yes, I need a shot at avenging my first-round death to that ringer of a developer's son, Kevin Verssen. :mad:

Bartbert, thanks for that info. I may have to adjust my heavy bomber escort strategy. I normally start at very high, which usually gets me the jump on any enemy fighters. This works well when the bombers are at high, but tends to bite when they are at medium.

And what I haven't figured out is this: when you fly a "perfect" dogfight--shoot down both opponents AND take no hits, a rarity--you still get the -1 aiframe. Why is that? Is it popped rivets from pulling Gs?

I'm not up to 200 kills yet, but my best pilot--eponymously named Stikman--has over 100. And I've got a 4-day weekend starting tomorrow! Look out leader board, I'm on the make . . .

Bartbert: Thanks for the suggestion on flying a lower level plane. I'll give that a try. Mistura: I did fly under the old fatigue system for a few weeks. I recall that sometimes I would get a really high dose of fatigue, but it seemed to reduce very rapidly. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but it seemed like my pilots were less tired then and I had more ready pilots to match up for human vs. human games. Bottom line here: I love this game. I haven't touched another game in the two months or so since I got the full version. Even have a couple of new games that I haven't bothered to install yet, cause DIF has captured my gaming time.

I've raised this in the DIF lobbby and in discussions with Tornado, but wanted to lay out my thoughts on the new fatigue system to see what others think. I argue that, with the new fatigue system, the DIF designers ought to consider adding a fifth pilot slot to each country. :cool: If your missions go swimmingly well, fatigue is not a problem. But, if you have a few back to back missions where wingman and leader get shot down :mad: and accumulate 36 fatigue, with only four pilots, you can end up having to fly one with 9 fatigue--something I don't like to do. In addition, having only four pilots per country can make it difficult to have a well-rested pilot at the right level available to join in a multiplayer match. And I think the designers have said they are trying to encourage more human vs. human play. Having a fifth pilot slot also might--eh, probably not--make it easier to (gasp!) delete a pilot in order to enter a tournament, as I had to do the other night when I signed up for "Til Death Due You Part." (And by the way, shouldn't it be "Do" vice "Due"?) I went with a Japanese entry because I was least "emotionally invested" in those pilots. Not to mention I had just lost another Japanese wingman, making the decision of which pair to delete that much easier. I'm sure you guys won't be shy in reacting to this.

It's a bit fustrating that you can't coordinate altitude with the bombers. I gave this a bit of thought yesterday after perching my fighters at "very high" on two different missions and having my B-17s jumped at medium. In one case, enemy fighters were at medium and low, giving them two turns to thump on my "Big Friends" before I could get there to help. This was escpecially annoying when on another recent mission--also with an altitude differential from my bombers--I noticed one Japanese wingman in a "Randy" had seven! cards at the start of his turn. (I still can't explain this, though Sixxkiller and I discussed it at the time. The Randy wingy should have had four to start, plus one for teamwork, and maybe one for a "draw extra" I may not have noticed, but I still can't account for one card???) What do others think? Should you be able to know what altitude your bombers will be at, so you can plan an escort strategy?

I'm throwing my hat in the tournament ring. I just sent you my entry Sixxkiller. Looking forward to this thing, however short my pilot may live. I lost a wingman tonight, so it made it easy to decide who to delete!

Time usually playing: 8:00-11:00 pm EST Time Zone: EST Usual Time Spent playing: 1-2 hours Best Day to Play, Sat or Sun: Either Favorite plane in DIF: P-51 Would join squadron: Yes DIF Employee You Wish to Play Most: Dan